Most Casual Observer

MLD Speedmid Tent - Less is More

My big Christmas present was a lightly-used Speedmid tent from Mountain Laurel Designs. It sleeps two people in comfort and weighs under a pound and a half with tent stakes and stuff sack. It uses a single trekking pole as a center pole. There is no floor, so I bring a big sheet of Tyvek (12 oz.) or a single person polycryo groundsheet from Gossamer Gear (2 oz.).

I use a breathable bivy (Ptarmigan from Titanium Goat) in case of condensation or blown rain. I also like to tuck my head inside the bivy when the breeze picks up. The bivy is essential for tarp camping, but I’m not sure it is worth carrying for use inside the Speedmid, even though it is only 7.5 oz.

Here is the tent set up at Eagle’s Aerie campsite in the Sunol Wilderness. It is set up very low to the ground, because we expected wind and rain. In less threatening weather, the tent can be pitched with the edges higher for more ventilation and more room inside.

Not long after this photo, a big storm came through. With hail. My tent buddy and I ducked inside and stretched out for a nap. As you can see, it was a nice tight pitch, shedding the rain, hail and wind. Unlike a tarp, I didn’t have to spend a lot of time fussing with the pitch. I moved a couple of pegs, tightened the lines, and I was done.

You can see how the edge of the Tyvek sheet was nicely back from the edge of the tent so water would not pool on it.

It is plenty roomy inside. I’m 6’ 3” and my tent buddy is nearly as tall, and we both had room, with our gear inside. The tent walls do slope at a pretty low angle—the heavy nighttime rain was surprisingly close to my head and a little distracting.

This was a very exposed campsite and it was uncomfortably windy and cold outside. It was plenty windy, enough to blow down the cooking tarp, but the tent didn’t show it. It felt very secure, much more so than my other, heavier, tents.

There was no condensation inside. I was a bit surprised at that, because it was very humid (raining), the tent was pitched for minimum ventilation, it doesn’t have a peak vent, and the 40º weather was perfect for tent condensation.

I expected some rain to come in when I opened the door, but it wasn’t a problem. Most of the rain falls on you, whether you are outside leaning over the zipper or underneath it and opening from the inside. Make sure you flip your sleeping bag away from the door, and it’s fine.

The tent does take a fair amount of space to set up. The base is nine feet square, so allow a 10x10 space, as much room as a big family tent. On the other hand, there aren’t any guy lines to trip over.

All this for $170, the same price as a five and half pound REI Half Dome. If you have the cash, you could upgrade to the roomier and even more storm-worthy MLD Supermid, but the Speedmid is a heck of a lot of tent at an affordable price and a very light weight. Less is more.

What is like Dersu Uzala?

Tom Mangan recommended Dersu Uzala, so I added it to our Netflix Queue.

Funny, Netflix isn’t quite sure what other movies are like Dersu Uzala. I don’t really blame them — what is like a masterpiece?

I guess the list illuminates aspects of the film. These are the films it showed after I added Dersu Uzala to our queue:

• Little Big Man
• Deliverance
• Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, not Steven Soderbergh)
• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
• Stalker (more Tarkovsky)
• Shogun Assassin
• The Return
• Metropolis
• Earth
• Never Cry Wolf

Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Fritz Lang, and Burt Reynolds, no place but Netflix.

Paly Librarians Rock!

I stopped by the Palo Alto High School Library to personally thank the librarians this morning.

They have purchased books specifically for my son’s special day class. In addition to the resources for AP US History, now they have a picture book of all the dogs that are in Disney movies.

The librarians sat down with the class and talked with them about their interests and which books they like, then used part of their scarce acquisitions budget (the donations really help) for books which would fit the reading levels and interests of the students in special ed. Of course, this is what librarians do, but it is almost always to support general ed.

Our son loves libraries and has a period of student service in the Paly library. In eleven years in a great school system, this is the first time I can remember that a school library has specifically served the special ed students.

I’m really touched.

Weetzie Bat

Um, wow.

Let’s talk about the style. The psychedelic flow of Richard Brautigan with flashes of the journalistic precision of Raymond Chandler.

I’m betting you don’t buy the Chandler connection. From the first page of The Big Sleep, listen to the rhythm, the excess of observation, all from the viewpoint of the main character:

I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with blue clocks on them. […] The main hall of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some long and convenient hair.

I love the black wool socks with blue clocks.

From the first page of Weetzie Bat:

They didn’t care that Marilyn’s prints were practically in their back yard at Graumann’s; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at Farmer’s Market, and the wildest cheapest cheese and bean and hot dog and pastrami burritos at Oki Dogs; that the waitresses wore skates at the Jetson-style Tiny Naylor’s; that there was a fountain that turned tropical soda-pop colors, and a canyon where Jim Morrison and Houdini used to live, and all-night potato knishes at Canter’s, and not too far away was Venice, with columns, and canals, even, like the real Venice but maybe cooler because of the surfers.

None of these facts are necessary to the plot—so much for your Aristotelian parsimony—but every one of these details is important to the main character. The person and the details together nail down the time and place.

Here is a random page that sounds like Brautigan:

My Secret Agent Lover Man had driven her to the beach on the back of his motorcycle and pulled a bottle of pink champagne out of his trench coat. They were sitting on the sand by the sea. My Secret Agent Lover Man uncorked the champagne and handed the bottle to Weetzie. He got out his camera and filmed her taking a swig.

Really, it fell open to that page. Page 36. That hypnotic mix of intensity and distance. The book is even short like a Brautigan novel, only 85 pages.

I have no idea why this is shelved in young adult, except that it is really short and high school is mentioned in the opening sentence.

Go read it. Your library is sure to have it and you can read it in an hour or less.

PS: Right after I posted this, I searched for Francesca Lia Block, the author. I’m not alone in noticing the similarity to Raymond Chandler. Wikipedia has this:

One New York Times Book Review critic said, “Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler.”